Triplet Trouble
by Connieroo
Summary: This is a k just because it's about pregnancy. Annabeth finds out she's pregnant, but just with one baby?


Annabeth was woken by the usual: Coach Hedge banging on the door with his baseball bat and screaming like a madman. She got out of bed - and immediately threw up in the waste paper bin beside her bed.

Typical body, she thought. Now you tell me I get seasick.

She must have been pretty loud, because suddenly Percy was stood beside her bed.

'You okay?' he asked worriedly. He took her hand and turned those big, green eyes on her. Annabeth always found she could never lie when she looked into them; Percy was like a cute little puppy.

'Just a bug - or maybe seasickness?' she said, half telling him, half asking.

'Fine.' Annabeth could still hear the worry in his voice. 'If you need me, just call, okay?'

She swatted his arm. 'Stop getting so worked up, Seaweed Brain. I already told you, it's probably a bug.'

Some time in the night Annabeth woke to the same horrid feeling of nausea that had greeted her the last morning. This time she made it as far as the bathroom sink before she chucked up. She was about to get back in bed when she felt a strange feeling in her stomach. Almost like a kick...

She felt her stomach. She had been wondering why she had been putting on weight lately. Her belly was also quite swollen.

Annabeth couldn't help thinking of the night she and Percy had spent in the stables a few weeks ago, when they had... when they... they...

Suddenly there was a massive bright flash behind her. A tall, slender figure stood in the doorway and a sickly smell like rose perfume filled the air. Annabeth would have have screamed if the figure hadn't clamped a dainty hand over her mouth.

'Annabeth Chase, is that you?' asked a singsong voice. She nodded. 'Well, I've got some... news, so to say.'

She took her hand off Annabeth's mouth. 'Look, I'm going to be blunt with you. You're pregnant with twin gods.' The figure looked up. 'That blunt enough for you, Zeus?'

'H - Hang on!' stammered Annabeth. 'First of all - Who are you? And second - WHAT DID YOU SAY?'

'Look, there is a serious shortage of gods up on Olympus. We had to choose. Watch the Ancient Greek way of life crumble, or let a mature and capable demigod couple conceive and deliver twin gods! We chose repopulation, of course, and it was decided that you should have the task. To be fair, you were already knocked up when we decided.'

Annabeth felt like someone had set off an atomic bomb in her head. 'You mean, there are two tiny little people in me right now?'

'Yes.'

'Two little gods?'

'Yes'

'Just tell me one thing - I've heard from Greek myths that immortal pregnancies are uncomfortable and that the babies develop really fast. Also, aren't they really strong and like to kick a lot?'

'Yes. Gods develop nine or ten times faster than the human foetus. I expect your pregnancy will last about a month or so. Wait, actually, you're 2 weeks gone already, so it'll be about...'

The woman did some quick maths on her fingers.

'Two or three weeks,' Annabeth whispered.

'Uh, yes,' she replied. 'Annabeth, we chose you because you are one of the strongest demigods ever, emotionally and, in some ways, physically. No other demigod would have been able to take the strain of carrying twin gods.' She looked at her watch. 'Must dash,' she said perkily. 'By the way, the name's Aphrodite.' And she was gone.

Annabeth had so many questions. But at that moment there was only one thing on her mind - Percy.

She ran to his room and flung open the door. She shook Percy awake - maybe a little too hard, because Percy sat bolt upright in bed and grabbed Riptide from his dresser.

'It's only me!' Annabeth half laughed, half whimpered, half cried. She didn't even know how that was possible, she just felt so many emotions at once that everything exploded into a five minute sobbing fit. Percy just held her hand and whispered stuff like 'It's okay' and 'It's all fine'.

When Annabeth had recovered, she feverishly poured out the whole story. After evry sentence Percy turned whiter and whiter, and by the time Annabeth had finished he looked as sick as Annabeth had felt.

What followed was Annabeth explaining the whole story over and over again until Percy actually made a noise. 'Two weeks?' He croaked.

Annabeth nodded. 'It'll all be okay, Seaweed Brain.'

When Annabeth woke again her head was in Percy's lap. She would have vomited all over him had he not been awake and ready. He held the bin under her mouth patiently and pulled back her hair whilst she heaved.

She was just about to get up when she saw Coach Hedge's angry face peering through a crack in the door. He bounded in, baseball bat in the air, a murderous look in his beady black eyes.

'Unacceptable!' he screamed, beside himself with rage. To Annabeth's horror, she could see the faces of the rest of their crew mates behind Hedge.

Suddenly she felt a weird feeling in her stomach. She looked down and saw two tiny handprints on her tummy. The Coach must have seen them too because he stopped mid-rant to stare at Annabeth's stomach. She realised with a jolt that her belly had tripled in size overnight. She was now the size of a woman who was about five months gone.

'What...' Coach Hedge trailed off.

'Just give me five minutes,' she replied, and Hedge nodded and left the room, the rest of them trailing behind him.

When Annabeth went down for breakfast Piper suddenly swamped her in questions about what had happened. Annabeth eventually shook her off and sat down to stare at her bowl of cornflakes. She wished Piper would steal it, because there was no way she would be able to eat it.

For some reason, Annabeth suddenly felt compelled to tell the others.

She stood up and cleared her throat nervously. 'Uh, guys?' she half whispered. 'I need to tell you something. Aphrodite visited me in the night and told me - told me...' She trailed off. Almost immediately, she felt the two little hands - one for each twin - and that gave her strength. Why shouldn't she tell them? They were her friends!

'She told me that I'm pregnant with immortal twin gods,' she blurted. There was a long silence, only broken by Leo saying:

'Well, isn't there a cure?'

The idea was so ridiculous that Annabeth almost laughed.

'Leo, they're not parasites, nor viruses of any kind. They're literally babies, kids! There is no cure for pregnancy. It's not a disease.'

Two weeks later

Annabeth found herself in a huge room with elaborate mosaics decorating the walls and only Piper for company. She would of stopped to marvel at the amazing architectural qualities of the room if she had not been so scared. She had felt terrible all morning; the twins had been kicking like mad. She had thrown up numerous times and was starting to suspect something was wrong.

Suddenly Annabeth felt a strange sucking sensation in her stomach, and then a terrible pain that started in her stomach and spread right out to her fingers and toes. Then her jeans were wet and she realised that her waters had just broken and she was in labour and that Percy wasn't there and that everything was going wrong.

She doubled over in pain, clutching her bloated stomach and groaning. Piper looked back to see what was happening and immediately ran over to help.

'You okay?' she asked.

'Yeah, just a kick,' Annabeth lied. Suddenly another contraction ripped through her body, and she collapsed, yelling.

'Not okay, not okay!' she cried. 'I think I'm in labou-' She yelled again as another terrible pain racked over her.

One extremely painful hour later, Annabeth had delivered one of the twins. Piper spent most of the time panicking, leaving Annabeth to do the job by herself. When the first baby arrived, Annabeth wrapped her in her coat. Now that Annabeth had got into her stride, the second twin came in only twenty minutes. She held both of the tiny, squirming bundles in her arms and checked them over - two girls.

With Piper's help Annabeth limped back to the ship. Percy ran - almost fell - down the gangplank and wrapped her in a massive bear hug.

'You're a dad, Seaweed Brain,' she whispered softly.


End file.
